Anth 1050

Exam 1 (Exam 2 is a WIP)

Human nature

Qualities that distinguish humans from other creatures.

Human universal

A trait, behavior, or cultural feature shared across all known human societies.

Human Variation

The range of biological, genetic, and behavioral differences observed among individuals and populations.

Comparative Method

An analytical approach that evaluates traits, behaviors, or biological patterns across different species or populations to test hypotheses about adaptation and evolutionary history.

Cross Cultural Comparison

An analytical method that analyzes practices, behaviors, and beliefs across diverse human societies to identify universals, explain variation, and test behavioral hypotheses.

Adaptation

Natural Selection

Any alteration in the structure or function of an organism or any of its parts that results from natural selection and by which the organism becomes better fitted to survive and multiply in its environment.

Fitness

A quantitative representation of what tends to be favored by natural selection.

Reproductive Sucess

An individual's production of offspring per breeding event or lifetime

Proximate Explanation

describes the immediate mechanism, physiology, or development of a trait or behavior, answering the question of how it works rather than why it evolved

Ultimate Explanation

describes the evolutionary "why" of a biological trait or behavior

Tinbergen’s Four Questions

• Function (adaptation)

• Phylogeny (evolution)

• Mechanism (causation)

• Ontogeny (development)

Mechanism

the specific processes, drivers, or functional pathways that produce cultural, biological, or cognitive change and social order

Ontogeny

the origination, growth, and physical or behavioral development of an individual organism across its entire lifespan

Function

The role or purpose that a cultural practice, social institution, custom, or ritual plays in keeping a society stable and helping it survive

Phylogeny

Evolutionary history and lines of descent of a species or group of organisms.

Trade-off

When an evolutionary change that increases one fitness trait unavoidably decreases another.

Constraint

Any factor that limits, channels, or prevents natural selection from producing an "ideal" or perfectly adapted trait.

Ancestral Trait

A physical attribute, genetic sequence, or behavior that is inherited from a distant common ancestor and has remained relatively unchanged throughout a lineage.

Derived Trait

a physical feature, genetic sequence, or behavior that evolved newly in a lineage after it split from a common ancestor

Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness

The collective suite of selection pressures, ecological conditions, and social environments that a species faced while its specific derived traits were evolving.

Evolutionary Psychology

A theoretical framework that applies the principles of evolutionary biology and anthropology to map the structure and functional design of the human mind.

Human Behavioral Ecology

An evolutionary framework that examines how human behavior and cultural strategies adapt dynamically to optimize survival and reproductive success in response to specific ecological and social environments.

Cultural Evolution

An evolutionary framework that examines how human behavior and cultural strategies adapt dynamically to optimize survival and reproductive success in response to specific ecological and social environments.

Evolutionary Mismatch

Core concept in evolutionary biology, anthropology, and psychology that occurs when traits that evolved in one environment

Environmental Novelty

A state where an organism finds itself in an environment that is radically different,

Plasticity

Foundational mechanism that allows living organisms to bend, adapt, and remodel themselves in response to environmental novelty and evolutionary mismatches.

Life History Theory

Explains how organisms allocate their limited time and energy (resources) across their lifespan to maximize reproductive success—meaning the passing on of their genes.

Energy Allocation

It describes how an organism acquires resources (like calories, nutrients, and time) and how it distributes that limited energy budget among competing metabolic demands to survive, grow, and reproduce.

Growth

The process of increasing in physical size, mass, and cellular complexity, representing a fundamental energy allocation toward building somatic infrastructure and functional bodily systems before or alongside reproduction.

Maintenance

The baseline physiological process of somatic repair, immune defense, and cellular upkeep required to keep an organism alive, distinct from the energy invested in growth or reproduction.

Reproduction

The biological process of producing offspring and passing on genetic material, representing the ultimate energy investment trade-off against somatic growth, maintenance, and self-repair.

Somatic Effort

The proportion of an organism's energy budget directed toward growing, repairing, maintaining, and defending its own physical body (soma), rather than toward reproduction.

Reproductive Effort

The proportion of an organism's energy budget directed toward reproduction

Mating Effort

The proportion of an organism's energy budget directed toward mating

Parenting Effort

The proportion of an organism's energy budget directed toward caring for an offspring

Extrinsic Morality

A framework where moral rules, ethical standards, and behaviors are driven by external pressures, rewards, punishments, or social enforcement (such as cultural norms, religious laws, or reputation management), rather than internal conscience or autonomous reasoning.

Intrinsic Morality

A framework where moral rules, ethical standards, and behaviors are driven by internal conscience, empathy, autonomy, or an inherent sense of right and wrong, independent of external punishments, rewards, or cultural enforcement.

Cooperative Breeding

In evolutionary ecology and life history theory, a social system in which individuals other than the biological parents.

Senescence

The gradual deterioration of physical and physiological function over time, characterized by declining fertility and increasing mortality rates as an organism ages.

Inclusive Fitness

In evolutionary biology and life history theory, the total measure of an organism's reproductive success, calculated by combining its own direct reproductive success (offspring produced) with its indirect reproductive success (the survival and reproduction of non-descendant kin

Intergenerational Transfer

The passing of resources, energy, knowledge, wealth, or childcare support from older generations (such as parents and grandparents) to younger generations,

Total Energy Expenditure (TEE)

In life history theory, anthropology, and human physiology, the total amount of energy (calories) an organism expends in 24 hours

Physical Activity Level (PAL)

In human physiology, nutrition, and life history theory, a standardized index used to express a person's total daily energy expenditure as a multiple of their basal metabolic rate, calculated by dividing total daily energy expenditure by basal metabolic rate over a 24-hour period.

Doubly Labeled Water (DLW)

A gold-standard isotopic tracing method used to measure Total Energy Expenditure (TEE) over a multi-day period in free-living organisms by tracking the differential elimination rates of ingested stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen

Sexual Selection

A specialized form of natural selection where traits and behaviors evolve specifically because they enhance an organism's mating success

Ansinogamy

a form of sexual reproduction where the fusing gametes (sex cells) differ in size, shape, or form

Intrasexual Competition

rivalry between members of the same sex to obtain and maintain access to mates or reproductive resources

Mate Choice

a key evolutionary mechanism in sexual selection where one sex (frequently females) is selective when picking individuals of the opposite sex to mate with

Paternal Investment

Any time, energy, or resource that a biological father invests in his offspring to increase the offspring's chances of survival and reproduction, at a cost to the father's own ability to invest in other endeavors or future matings

Reproductive Skew

Unequal sharing or partitioning of reproduction among same-sex members of a social group.

Sexual Dimorphism

the condition where males and females of the same species show distinct physical or behavioral differences beyond their reproductive organs

Pair Bond

A strong, selective, and enduring social or mating affiliation between two adult individuals that lasts beyond a single reproductive cycle.

Paternity certainty

The fundamental biological asymmetry that human females are always certain of their maternity through pregnancy and childbirth, while males cannot directly verify biological fatherhood without genetic evidence

Marriage

The union between two or more

Monogamy

A pair of two in a relationship or marriage

Polygamy

the practice of being married to more than one spouse at the same time

Polygyny

A man with multiple wives

Polyandry

A wife with multiple husbands

Descent

Offspring in a lineage

Paternal Descent

Father’s side offspring

Maternal Descent

Mother’s side offspring

Normative monogamy

the cultural and social assumption that romantic and sexual relationships are only normal, healthy, or morally valid when they involve an exclusive, two-person couple

Embodied Capital

The knowledge, skills, physical abilities, and cultural dispositions that are internalized within a person's body and mind

Alloparent

any individual—other than a biological parent—who helps provide care, protection, or provisioning to young offspring

Kin Selection

an evolutionary process where natural selection favors traits that benefit the survival and reproductive success of an organism's relatives, even at a cost to the organism's own individual survival or reproduction

Cooperative breeding

a social system where offspring receive care and provisioning not only from their biological parents, but also from additional group members known as helpers (alloparents)

Grandmother Hypothesis

An evolutionary theory that explains why human females live for decades after their reproductive years end.

Pattern ≠ Explination

A correlation is not a cause, and a description is not a reason.

WEIRD acronym

W — Western

E — Educated

I — Industrialized

R — Rich

D — Democratic

Historical Particularism

An anthropological school of thought founded by Franz Boas that asserts each society has a unique historical trajectory and must be understood within its own specific cultural, environmental, and social context

Cultural Relativism

the principle that a person's beliefs, values, and practices should be understood and evaluated based on their own cultural context rather than judged by the standards of another culture

Human Universal

traits, patterns, institutions, or mental characteristics found across all known human societies and cultures

Evolutionary Psychology

a theoretical approach that studies human cognition, emotion, and behavior through the lens of evolutionary biology

Human Behavior Ecology

applies evolutionary theory and optimization models to study how ecological and social environments shape human behavior.

Comparative Method

a systematic approach to studying similarities and differences across two or more cases, systems, or disciplines to test hypotheses, reconstruct history, or explain social and natural phenomena

Life History Theory

an evolutionary framework that explains how natural selection shapes an organism's schedule of growth, development, reproduction, and lifespan

Allocation

the act of dividing and distributing resources, such as money, time, space, or personnel, for a specific purpose or to specific groups

Trade-off

A situation where an evolutionary, physiological, or cultural adaptation enhances performance or fitness in one domain while simultaneously reducing it in another

Childhood

Early stage of development

Altrical

a developmental pattern in animals where the young are born or hatched in a helpless, undeveloped state and require prolonged parental care to survive.

Weaning

the process of transitioning a baby or young mammal from breast milk or formula to solid foods and other liquids

Human Developmental package

• Born relatively altricial

• Wean relatively early

• Mature relatively late

• Grow unusually slowly

• Shorter birth intervals than other great apes

• Support offspring long after weaning

• Often support multiple dependent children simultaneously

Nutritional Independence

consuming a balanced diet that preserves muscle mass, bone density, and cognitive function independently

Describe how environments can change the costs and benefits of different life-

history allocations.

Environments alter the principle of allocation—the reality that an organism has a finite pool of energy, time, and resources that must be divided among competing functions like growth, maintenance (somatic effort), and reproduction. As ecological conditions shift, the costs and benefits of these trade-offs change.

Humans solve the problem of a long, expensive childhood partly through…

provisioning and cooperation, allowing development and learning to continue long after weaning.

Hamilton's rule

rB>C

• r = genetic relatedness

• B = benefit to the recipient

• C = cost to the actor

Use Hamilton's rule to explain why helping relatives can sometimes increase inclusive fitness.

Hamilton’s rule explains that helping relatives increases inclusive fitness (an individual's total genetic success through both direct and indirect reproduction) when the genetic benefit to the recipient, weighted by how closely related they are, outweighs the cost to the helper

Describe major changes in energy intake associated with industrialized environments

• Greater access to energy-dense foods

• More highly processed foods

• More refined sugars and fats

• More continuous and predictable food availability

Describe major changes in energy expenditure

• Less physically demanding work

• Mechanized transportation

• Labor-saving technologies

• More sedentary daily routines

Do highly active Hadza adults expend substantially more total energy than people in industrialized populations?

No. When adjusted for body size and fat-free mass, total energy expenditure (TEE) in highly active Hadza adults is similar to that of adults in industrialized, Western populations

Summarize: Greater physical activity did not translate straightforwardly into proportionally greater total daily energy expenditure.

• Non-linear relationship: Burning more calories through exercise does not mean your total daily calorie burn goes up by the same amount.

• Metabolic adaptation: The body often compensates for higher activity by dialing down energy spent on other physiological processes or resting functions.

• Diminishing returns: At higher levels of physical activity, total daily energy expenditure tends to plateau rather than scale infinitely

Explain how metabolic compensation complicates a simple additive model of energy expenditure

Metabolic compensation complicates a simple additive model of energy expenditure because the human body actively reduces its baseline metabolic rate to offset increases in physical activity.

Explain why human metabolic flexibility matters when making mismatch arguments.

The body's ability to efficiently switch between burning carbohydrates and burning fats based on availability and demand—is a crucial piece of evidence when making evolutionary mismatch arguments because it shows that our bodies evolved to thrive in highly unpredictable environments, making our current, hyper-stable food environment uniquely damaging

Human bodies do not necessarily respond to environmental change in simple, linear ways…

Physiological flexibility can alter the relationship between behavior and outcomes.

Evolutionary mismatch

a biological and psychological concept where traits, behaviors, or physiological mechanisms that evolved to be advantageous in an ancestral environment become maladaptive or harmful when exposed to a rapid modern environment

Plasticity

the ability of an organism's body or phenotype to change in response to environmental conditions (such as diet, altitude, climate, or stress) within its lifetime, without a change in the underlying DNA sequence

Circadian rhythm

your body's built-in, roughly 24-hour internal clock that controls physical, mental, and behavioral cycles

What does a Mismatch argument need to demonstrate?

• A specific outcome

• A relevant environmental change

• An evolved or developmentally calibrated system responding to that

environment

• A mechanism connecting environmental change to the outcome

• Evidence distinguishing the proposed mechanism from alternatives

Explain why a plausible evolutionary story is not enough.

a narrative that sounds reasonable is not the same as a testable, falsifiable explanation